Interview: The Money War

Forming whilst road-tripping across the U.S.A and taking inspiration from the places they visited, local band The Money War have recently released their EP. GROK found time to talk with band member Dylan Ollivierre on the formation of the band, the band’s U.S influence and the feeling of finally releasing a debut EP.

How did you get started?

Carmen and I met playing in the bands Rainy Day Women and The Warning Birds, which are both Perth-based. From there we started playing gigs together; this was a few years ago now. We started to cover the Rainy Day Women songs, and from there we did some traveling.

So your new album’s songs are mostly written and recorded whilst you were on a road trip in the US?

Yeah, that’s right. We wrote them there and finished the recording back here.

How do you think the time you spent in the US influenced your music?

Massively, I think. I think a lot of the comparisons we get are to the American vibe, Californian thing, which makes sense, because we spent a lot of time there and it’s where most of the songs were written, during the drive. I’d say that the album has a ‘road-trippy’ vibe to it—I think it was massively influential.

And where does the name Money War come from?

It was a name we were throwing around as a label to correct all of the songs we were working on and it represented what quite a lot of the songs in the EP were about from real life – Recall, which is about disillusion with getting a real job and a career, going down that path. So for me, The Money War is, not so much political, but it’s kind of talking about what everyone goes through – to have enough money to survive and also do what you want to do in your life.

You debut album is going to be out on the April 7th. How does that feel?

Really good! I mean we worked on it quite a long time, so it’s kind of relief to get to the end. Mostly it’s also a relief to hear it and still enjoy it, because at some point I definitely got sick of writing the songs and such, but I do think that this is good work and represents us.

What was the hardest part in making the album?

We wrote it, mixed it and recorded it all at our home studio. So the hardest part was maintaining perspective across all the steps, mostly in the mixing, because it’s like if you give it to someone, they can probably see it much more clearly and get to the point quicker. You can really lose the perspective and go down the rabbit hole, and I guess we did, but we came back up!

What would you say is the theme of the album?

Well we left the EP to be called The Money War, because felt like it describes it as our band name too.

What’s the story behind the cover?

The cover is actually by an artist called Bret Polok—he’s a WA based artist and we found his stuff and really liked it. It’s an interesting piece of art that we thought is really provocative and kind of non-specific at the same time. You get the feeling of what he’s trying to say which we felt like reminded what the EP is about.

You’re going to be supporting the Lumineers in a couple of weeks. How did that come to happen?

Yeah, I’m not entirely sure to be honest. They just asked if we wanted to support them and we said yes!

Would you say The Lumineers has in any way affected your music?

I honestly don’t know, I’ve been meaning to dig into their music a bit more and I know some of the guys from the band are big fans. I’m still just a bit shit—it’s a massive gig and you know how big the band is.

Do you wish to have more influence in the US?

We both really love the US and are influenced by the music culture and arts there, so in a personal level to spend more time over there would be awesome. In terms of fans, or audience, here or there it’d be great to have more.

What’s next for the Money War?

We’re going to start a national tour and currently we’re getting a bit picked up in our on-stage.